The Respect MP George Galloway has been criticised by the leader of his party for suggesting that the rape allegations facing the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange amount to little more than "really bad manners" and "bad sexual etiquette".

The Respect leader, Salma Yaqoob, described the remarks, widely condemned by anti-rape campaigners, as "deeply disappointing and wrong".

Galloway, the MP for Bradford West, had claimed that even if the complaints made against Assange by two women in Sweden were "100% true", they still could not be considered rape. "They don't constitute rape," he said in a video podcast on Monday. "At least not rape as anyone with any sense can possibly recognise it."

He went on: "Some people believe that when you go to bed with somebody, take off your clothes, and have sex with them and then fall asleep, you're already in the sex game with them. It might be really bad manners not to have tapped her on the shoulder and said: 'Do you mind if I do it again?' It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape, or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning."

In a posting on her own website on Tuesday, Yaqoob emphatically distanced herself from Galloway's comments, saying the "political issues" surrounding Assange's case should not be used to lessen the gravity of the accusations against him.

"Let me be clear, as a politician and as a woman," she said. "Rape occurs when a woman has not consented to sex. George Galloway's comments on what constitutes rape are deeply disappointing and wrong. There are many political issues entwined in the case of Julian Assange. These issues cannot be used to diminish in any way the seriousness of any allegations against him."

Just as anyone accused of any crime was innocent until proven guilty, she added, "Any individual who believes themselves to be a victim has a right to have their grievances heard in a fair manner and not have their allegations belittled or dismissed." That, said Yaqoob, was a "cornerstone of justice".

Her criticism came hours after Galloway had released a statement to defend and clarify the claims he made in the video, and to repeat his assertion that Assange was the victim of a setup.

"No never means yes and non-consensual sex is rape," he said. "There's no doubt about it and that has always been my position. But if my remarks on the podcast need clarification, I am happy to do that. Julian Assange – let's be clear – has always denied the allegations. And this has all the hallmarks of a setup. I don't believe, from what we know, that the director of public prosecutions would sanction a prosecution in Britain. What occurred is not rape as most people understand it. And it's important to note that the two women involved did not initially claim it."

The hacking group Anonymous on Tuesday claimed to have disrupted UK government websites in protest at the handling of Assange's bid to avoid extradition. The self-styled hacktivist group targeted the websites of No 10 and the Home Office early on Monday under what it called "Operation Free Assange". Hackers said they had also disrupted websites belonging to the Ministry of Justice and Department for Work and Pensions. Anonymous vowed to continue targeting government websites. The Ministry of Justice said it had been experiencing "some disruption" on its site.